UCLA: Bruins find right defensive mix

UCLA forward Kevon Looney defends as SMU center Cannen Cunningham shoots during the first half of last week's NCAA Tournament opener. Looney likely will be asked to defend Gonzaga's 6-foot-10 Kyle Wiltjer, one of the tournament's best pure scorers, in Friday's South Regional semifinal in Houston.

LOS ANGELES – When Gonzaga piled up 87 points in its victory at Pauley Pavilion in December – a benchmark it reached 11 other times over the course of the season – it did so against a young UCLA defense that bears just a passing resemblance to the one that has propelled the Bruins as the NCAA Tournament’s only remaining double-digit seed this March.

So distinct are the differences that when UCLA coach Steve Alford rolled the footage from their last meeting in preparation for Friday’s South Regional semifinal rematch with No. 2 seed Gonzaga in Houston, his players watched in horror, appalled by their lack of effort. They weren’t closing out on 3-point shooters. They didn’t take up space in the paint. They were barely in proper position. It was worse than they’d expected.

Alford said Tuesday that his staff was still trying to get a grip on the team’s strengths and weaknesses then. Over the next four games, all losses, he saw plenty of the latter.

UCLA didn’t have the ideal personnel – in experience or depth – to play man-to-man defense for 40 minutes, with its backcourt struggling to defend more athletic guards. Its zone, on the other hand, was too lax on outside shooters, and Alford preferred not to use it regularly.

So without an ideal fit in either defense, Alford decided to give up on choosing altogether. Instead of running one, he’s running both, mixing and matching. UCLA (22-13) isn’t so much settling into a defensive identity as it is scrapping the idea that it needs one at all.

Alford has run man defenses, 2-3 zones, 3-2 zones, full-court presses, and half-court traps, with the intention of keeping offenses off balance. It’s not a strategy he plans to use as the bedrock of the program. But for the moment, it’s working.

“I think we’ll grow into it as years go by,” Alford said of his defensive philosophy. “But being a young team, we can’t play 40 minutes of hard-nosed, man-to-man and do what we’d like to do. We’ve got to be a team that mixes it up.”

Those adjustments have helped make UCLA a much stronger team on the interior in its past two tournament wins. Against UAB and SMU, UCLA collapsed the paint and limited easy buckets, holding them to a combined 38 percent from inside the arc.

Stopping Gonzaga (34-2) won’t be nearly that simple, considering the Bulldogs are one of the nation’s top 3-point shooting teams (41 percent). That means UCLA’s zone, which has done wonders keeping teams out of the lane, could be less effective than usual.

Man-to-man defense, on the other hand, would mean more space in the paint for Gonzaga’s bigs to operate in. And with Looney forced to chase one of the tournament’s best pure scorers in 6-foot-10 Kyle Wiltjer, more space under the basket means more challenges for junior center Tony Parker. In their last meeting, Parker found himself in early foul trouble and played just 25 minutes, scoring a quiet six points.

So which strategy is the right one? Alford has looked for answers in Gonzaga game film from earlier in the season – to no avail. San Diego slowed the game down, and the Bulldogs bludgeoned them. Others sped them up – pressing on defense and flying in transition – only to be outrun by a superior Gonzaga offense.

“With Gonzaga, that’s a hard one,” Alford said. “That’s why they’re so good. You can concentrate on the 3-point line, but they have monsters inside. Fifty percent of their points are scored by their bigs. Then, they score 28 points from behind the 3-point line. It’s hard to figure out which you’ll be able to take away, if any.”

Without a clear answer, expect Alford to throw more curveballs than ever on defense.

“We’ve got to try something to confuse them a little bit,” Alford said.

It has worked before. But against an offensive juggernaut, even that might not be as easy as it seems.

“Having three senior guards (in Kevin Pangos, Josh Bell, and Byron Wesley), they’ve seen everything,” Alford said. “I don’t care if you trap ball screens, change coverage on ball screens or in the post. These guards have seen everything.”

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